There are a lot of professions out there, but whittling down which ones you should snag for your class is a tough choice in World of Warcraft. So we’re going to break down the five best professions for everyone to help make that choice a lot easier the next time you’re face to face with a guard pondering which trainer to ask for. So don’t fret, have a look at this list to see what the top 5 professions are in WoW!

Jewelcrafting

Jewelcrafting is the absolute best profession in the game when it comes to min/maxing your character. It may not give you a better bonus, but it lets you customize your bonus in the form of the bind-on-pickup gems you can craft. This lets you customize your character and your talent specialization perfectly, whereas the other professions give a set bonus. Want extra haste instead of intellect? This is the profession for you.

Not only that, but cutting gems is a steady source of income. The margin on gems has always been high and having the right recipes will have people lining up to pay you to cut their gems. Plus you get the added bonus of avoiding the auction house robbery on trying to make your own gems for your gear.

All around there isn’t anything negative to this profession other than the cost of leveling it which you can easily earn back by selling everything you produce in the leveling process.

As an added caveat, the epic Jewelcrafting gems can give you 1 additional stat point over the other professions, making it the “top profession” in terms of stat gains (for instance, 81 Agility instead of 80 Agility).

Engineering

Directly opposite of Jewecrafting is Engineering, where the bonus you get is random and sometimes nonsensical. Let’s face it, only a small minority of players in the game seek to be perfect min/maxers that would spend 50,000 gold for 10 more damage. Engineering provides something no other profession has: fun. Parachute cloaks that let you slow fall, Nitro Boosts that shoot you through a battleground, and even direct spinal injections of Mana/Healing potions are all contained in the engineer’s odd bag of tricks

Not only do you get the Synapse Springs, which gives you an additional 80 Agility, Intellect, or Strength but you can use Nitro Boosts to fly around, the bolt gun for more DPS (and PvP interrupt), and a variety of other tools. You also can make flying machines and other cool tools that no other profession gives. What other profession gives you exploding sheep?

Gathering (Skinning, Herbalism, Mining)

You can’t really rank these professions separately since they all make you money and their bonuses are weak at best. You can get 120 Stamina, 480 Haste Rating temporarily, or a passive 80 crit rating from these professions but you don’t pick them up for that, you get them for the money. The best money maker is usually Mining which brings in the big bucks for ore. Even older ore like Cobalt and Fel Iron sell big (since Engineers need something close to 300 Fel Iron Bars to level up). Herbalism is always steady income with the plethora of herbs littered across the land and Skinning is always useful.

It’s important to note that resource nodes grant additional experience, making leveling up with one of these professions easier than ever.

Inscription

Inscription holds a special place in everyone’s heart for allowing you to skip through the long reputation grind to snag your shoulder enchants. Not only that, it also gets them to you at a much earlier level making leveling up a bit easier. As an added bonus, it’s big money at the auction house. Everyone needs Glyphs and not every scribe has every recipe, making it big money for those with a penchant for refreshing the auction house and relisting their wares in the cut throat glyph division.

Alchemy

It's a tough job to be #5 on this list, as the rest of the professions give you the exact same bonus: 80 Agility/Intellect/Strength. There is one profession that stands out: Alchemy. The reason is because you can actually earn a decent profit with it through the sell of potions, flasks, and transmutes. Not only that, but you get some added mojo whenever you quaff a potion and the extra flask duration goes a long way in saving you gold in the bank.

The remaining professions are not nearly as notable as the rest, outside of Alchemy. They all grant the standard 80 stat point boosts, except Tailoring, which gives way to more of a burst damage/healing enchant on your cloak then a pure 80 stat point buff. Whichever one you pick you wouldn’t be making a mistake with, since all professions grant just about the same bonus, except for gathering professions which are more about earning cash then about boosting your character.

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.